The Tumbler Ridge Shooting and Gun Laws in Canada
Evelyn Shaw ’29
One of the deadliest gun attacks in Canada, the Tumbler Ridge School Shooting, which happened on February 10th, calls into consideration the efficacy of Canada’s Gun Policies.
Canadians have an international reputation for being incredibly polite and cordial, so much so that Canada is ranked #1 in Friendliest Countries in the world and #4 in Best Countries overall according to a global survey done by U.S. News & World Report. Nevertheless, we must not confuse warmth with safety. Such glowing impressions can easily lead people to overlook that Gun control laws are clearly still lacking in Canada.
Now, as Americans, we are in no position to critique Canada for not having tighter Gun Control Laws, considering that the U.S. has 288 School Shootings between 2009 and 2018, ranked #1 for Countries with the Most School Shootings. The insane thing is that Mexico, which was the runner-up for this category, only had 8 school shootings between 2009 and 2018. Canada was listed #9 with only 2 School Shootings (Source: CNN, World Population Review). However, children all over the world deserve access to a safe school environment. No child should be traumatized by hearing gunshots and blood-curdling screams in their own school. The primary reason for scrutinizing Canada’s gun laws is that Canada is where the School Shooting we shall be analyzing took place.
On Tuesday, February 10, 2026, at about 1:30, the local police received a call about an active shooter at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. Eyewitnesses say that the principal ran through the halls ordering teachers to close and lock the doors. Once everyone started to grasp the seriousness of the situation, tables and chairs were used to barricade doors. The shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar, ended up killing 9 people and inflicting 25 injuries. She was pronounced dead by police officers by a self-inflicted gunshot. The victims were primarily 12-year-olds. One was said to have “a beautiful soul” and “love of science”, while another “loved art and anime”. It may be a bit redundant to say, but we should have zero tolerance for gun policies that devastate communities like this. As I looked further into the life of the shooter it became increasingly clear that there was a lot to blame on the system.
Jesse Van Rootselaar had previously struggled with her mental health and drugs. It was reported that she frequently consumed “violent, nihilistic content.” The law enforcement in Tumbler Ridge was certainly no stranger to Van Rootselaar’s mental health battles because on multiple occasions, they had been called to her family home. The police were even aware that she possessed firearms because on one occasion, they had to confiscate them while she was setting fires under the influence of illegal drugs, according to the New York Times report. The concerning thing is that they were returned to her.
How could this have happened?
Firearm Regulations in Canada demand “mandatory safety training courses; more detailed background checks; bans on large-capacity magazines; and bans or greater restrictions on military-style firearms and ammunition” (PBS News). However, this doesn’t seem to be effective in preventing dangerous people from owning firearms because when police were present, they could see she was then unfit to possess firearms, yet they gave them back to her. The issue clearly lies in the lack of enforcement of the laws. Which is clearly seen in the case of Van Rootselaar who had previously posted about being hospitalized in a psychiatric ward, this alone would be enough for a judge to call into question if she should possess a gun according to the criteria listed in Canada’s Firearms Act, but that coupled with her drug usage, another point in the act, should’ve been indication enough for law enforcement to intervene and have her guns taken for good. Nevertheless, this did not happen, leading to murder, trauma, and injury.
One bit of hope, though, is that we’ve seen that extreme instances of gun violence in Canada lead to Firearm law reform. Staying vocal about our outrage plays a huge role in this; we cannot let school shootings be normalized. With all the backlash the government has been getting, hopefully, they will be pressured into reforming gun laws.